Post-fledging habitat selection by the Slender-billed Parakeet (Enicognathus leptorhynchus) in a fragmented agricultural landscape of southern Chile

Abstract

Despite the importance of the post-fiedging period in avian population dynamics, little is known about habitat use during this life stage. We examined habitat selection by radio-tracked juvenile Slender-billed Parakeets (Enicognathus leptorhynchus) at multiple spatial scales in a fragmented agricultural landscape of southern Chile. Using home ranges versus study area (home-range selection) and locations versus combined home range (habitat-type selection), we based spatial analyses of habitat selection on the population level. Slender-billed Parakeets made similar habitat choices across the hierarchical levels examined, except for riparian and native second-growth forests, which they avoided at the level of overall home-range selection but used in proportion to availability at the level of habitat-type selection. Farmland and pastures with high densities of scattered mature trees were the only habitats positively selected at multiple spatial scales, adding to the increasing amount of literature highlighting the value of such trees for native fauna in highly modified areas. These trees appeared to be important for the birds during the post-fledging period as sites for feeding, perching, and roosting and to facilitate movement through open agricultural landscapes. © The Cooper Ornithological Society 2012.